Ispectrum Magazine Ispectrum Magazine #01 | Page 38

goes back hundreds if not thousands of years. The beings in questions are known as“ kachinas”; they are not extra-terrestrial as such, but definitely otherworldly.
An extensive collection of 400 kachina dolls can be seen in the Heard Museum in Phoenix; they were donated by the controversial Republican politician Barry Goldwater. Each doll looks different and has specific characteristics; each represents a different element or entity that has entered the Hopi world at some point in their history. And when you look at the Eototo kachina doll in the Museum of Northern Arizona, you find the creature has much in common with LEGO figures. Then again, just like LEGO, kachina dolls were there for children be educated in the
Kachina dancers of the Hopi pueblo of Shongopavi, Arizona, USA
ways of the Otherworld and how it interacted with ours.
Amongst the Native Americans, the Hopi have a special place. Thousands of people would like to visit their religious ceremonies, and thousands of tourists return home from Arizona with a kachina doll. The kachina dolls are made from kaolin clay, meant to be hung from beams or walls in the home. They are white in colour and the basic shape is painted to show a head, arms, folded over a kilt, which is representing rain. Tradition argues that carving the“ tihu” should be done by men, but today, women are involved in their manufacture, if only for selling them to tourists. Indeed, in what is likely to be a rush for finance, rather than heritage, tribal councils even tried to copyright the word kachina, but
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goes back hundreds if not thousands of years. The beings in questions are known as“ kachinas”; they are not extra-terrestrial as such, but definitely otherworldly.

An extensive collection of 400 kachina dolls can be seen in the Heard Museum in Phoenix; they were donated by the controversial Republican politician Barry Goldwater. Each doll looks different and has specific characteristics; each represents a different element or entity that has entered the Hopi world at some point in their history. And when you look at the Eototo kachina doll in the Museum of Northern Arizona, you find the creature has much in common with LEGO figures. Then again, just like LEGO, kachina dolls were there for children be educated in the

Kachina dancers of the Hopi pueblo of Shongopavi, Arizona, USA

ways of the Otherworld and how it interacted with ours.

Amongst the Native Americans, the Hopi have a special place. Thousands of people would like to visit their religious ceremonies, and thousands of tourists return home from Arizona with a kachina doll. The kachina dolls are made from kaolin clay, meant to be hung from beams or walls in the home. They are white in colour and the basic shape is painted to show a head, arms, folded over a kilt, which is representing rain. Tradition argues that carving the“ tihu” should be done by men, but today, women are involved in their manufacture, if only for selling them to tourists. Indeed, in what is likely to be a rush for finance, rather than heritage, tribal councils even tried to copyright the word kachina, but

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